Toshiba Storage Device Division has announced a new family of 2.5" hard disk drives (HDDs) with 7200 RPM spindle speed and government-grade AES-256 hardware encryption incorporated in the disk drive’s controller electronics. The new drives are designed for commercial notebooks and security-sensitive applications, including shared desktop PCs.

Toshiba's new family of self-encrypting drives features 160GB, 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB capacities and is based on one or two the latest-generation perpendicular magnetic recording platters with 512Gb/inch2 areal density. The drives feature 7200 RPM spindle speed, 16MB cache, Serial ATA-300 interface and feature 12ms average seek time.

Based on the Opal Security Subsystem Class (Opal SSC) specification from the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), the new Toshiba self-encrypting drive (SED) family enables secure and quick deployment of encryption on notebook and desktop PCs to protect confidential information. SEDs designed to the Opal SSC specification provide advanced access authentication and built-in hardware data encryption. Because it is an open industry standard, Opal encourages broad support from both security solutions vendors and SED makers – enabling seamless management of most deployments that support both pre-existing software encryption and Opal SSC-specified SED storage.

The Toshiba AES-256 encryption algorithm implementation is certified by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through its Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP). In addition, access to the Toshiba MKxx61GSYD SED can be securely administered or disabled remotely, using capabilities such as those enabled by Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT).

“Encryption standards established by organisations such as The Trusted Computing Group are making it significantly easier to deploy security solutions such as self-encrypted HDDs on portable PCs. Toshiba is aiming squarely at the need for stronger data security by launching its new mobile 2.5" HDD with AES 256 encryption embedded in the drive hardware, and designed to The Trusted Computing Group's Opal SSC specification," said John Rydning, an IDC industry analyst.